Americas Rankings – February 28 2016

Four of the six teams in the Americas Rugby Championship played for rankings points this weekend and they have all been effected. While no team has risen or fallen in the Americas Rankings there have been changes in points which see Brazil and Uruguay gaining superior rankings points at the expense of the USA and Chile.

Brazil’s historic win over the USA in São Paulo on Saturday sees an overall climb in the world rankings from 42nd to 38th thereby overtaking Sri Lanka, Tunisia, Lithuania and Madagascar. The new ranking sees the Tupis ranked one place below Paraguay with a ranking improvement from 48,41 to 50,41.

For the USA Eagles the loss does not change the North Americans position in the Americas Rankings. It does, however, mean that the USA fall behind Romania in the World Rankings to now occupy 17th position in the world. The Eagles new ranking of 66,86 is a noticeable drop from 68,86 points prior to the game.

Also having a new world ranking is Uruguay who have returned to the World’s Top 20 following their narrow 23-20 away win over Chile. Los Teros’ new ranking of 62,05 points is sufficient for Uruguay to overtake Namibia and narrow the gap to the 19th placed Canada.

Uruguay’s gained points come at the expense of Chile. Los Cóndores’ loss sees their rankings points dropping from 56,92 to 56,05 points. Combined with Germany upsetting Portugal it sees Chile tumbling in the World Rankings from 24th to 27th behind Germany, Korea and Belgium.

Today’s Americas Rugby Championship match between Argentina and Canada will see no change to either country in the ranking. This is due to it being the Argentina XV rather than Los Pumas and, as such, it is not classified as being a test match.

There could be additional changes to the rankings next weekend in the fifth and final round of the Americas Rugby Championship. Uruguay will play host to the USA in Montevideo while Chile will be taking-on Canada in Santiago. Brazil will face the Argentina XV in São José dos Campos.